Typically, sports or body boards are composed of a planar core material, for example, a closed cell foam material with sloped side rails meeting intermediate each side, and a nose section or chine area and a tail section, where the top surface of the board slopes downwardly at an angle to meet the bottom half of the board.
Sports boards, such as body and surf boards, are often composed of lightweight, foam core, top and bottom plastic film sections, with side rails heat-laminated to the top and bottom sections, and a slick, glossy, smooth plastic skin layer applied to the bottom board surface. U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,913, issued Jul. 25, 1989, discloses body boards with a slick film bottom, while U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,593, issued May 18, 1993, discloses the manufacture and structure of prior art body boards with a graphic imprinted skin.
In the use of sports boards, it is most desirable for the user to control or maneuver the board by gripping the nose and side areas of the board. U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,034, issued Jan. 16, 1990, discloses a body board with hand holds for a user, while U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,269, issued May 26, 1992, discloses a body board with contoured side grips for control. All of the above-mentioned U.S. patents are incorporated by reference to illustrate the manufacture and structure of prior art type sports boards.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,116,269 and 5,211,593, in particular, illustrate the prior art construction and method of laminating separate side strips of lower side and nose and tail rails. In practice, a plastic film is heat-laminated to the top surface of the core material to form a deck layer and then rolled over and heat-laminated to the bevelled, upper side rail surfaces on each opposing side. The bevelled lower side rail surfaces are repeatedly heat-laminated, as well as the nose and tail surfaces with separate plastic rail strips.
It is desirable to provide for a new and improved sport or body board and method of manufacture which overcomes some of the disadvantages of the prior art body-sports boards and to provide an improved method of manufacture and an improved sport or body board.